same life experiences in many ways.  Scout commented that Mayella must be the “loneliest person in the world” after learning about her life and listening to her recount the circumstances of the supposed rape.  Mayella Ewell has been abused by her father and has given up her life to take care of her younger brothers and sisters.  She never experienced the “happy-go-lucky” childhood we see Scout living at the beginning of the novel.  Mayella’s life was full of oppression and fear.  She grew up fast and learned what she must do to survive.  In this legal case, she knows that she must lie about Tom Robinson in order to survive her father’s brutal hand and keep some sort of respect in the community. 

Boo Radley has also led a lonely, sad life.  Locked up in his house by a controlling father after a minor altercation with the law, Boo has been deprived of the life he might have led.  He remains a recluse and is lonely and ostracized like Mayella.

This scene is a major rite of passage for Scout as she empathizes with Mayella and Boo and really learns what it’s like to “walk around in another person’s skin.” 

During the testimony of Mayella Ewell in Chapter 18 of To Kill a Mockingbird, both Jem and Scout wondered if she was mentally challenged.

I whispered to Jem, "Has she got good sense?"

Jem responded that "--oh, I don't know." After watching Mayella "burst into tears" during Atticus's questioning, Judge Taylor was equally curious, asking her

"What's the matter with you?"

Scout finally came to the conclusion that Mayella was simply unused to being out in public or being around people. An outcast who rarely left her house, Scout saw a comparison with Boo Radley. After listening to Tom's testimony, when he explained that Mayella had gotten rid of the Ewell children and invited him into her house to perform a few chores, 

... it came to me that Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world. She was even lonelier than Boo Radley, who had not been out of the house in twenty-five years.

Scout compares Mayella to Miss Maudie because she has one row of red geraniums in their yard. These geraniums are taken care of very efficiently by Mayella, so Scout compares the care these flowers receive to the town's best gardener's care. That would be Miss Maudie Atkinson.

What this shows about Mayella is the fact that she has the capacity to be a high-functioning member of society. She is just bound by circumstances. Given the right opportunities, Mayella could have been much more with great education and moral training. This is one of Lee's greatest comments. What we do is learned behavior. Mayella has very little choice on her circumstances and has conformed to that which her dad has created her to be, not that she wants to be that.

Mayella Ewell is the nineteen year-old daughter of Bob Ewell who accuses Tom Robinson of raping her. When Mayella takes the witness stand, Scout thinks about where she comes from and the type of life she is forced to live as a Ewell. It must be quite a disgusting life, for example, to live behind the dump, living off of what they find in the forest and in the trash. They don't bathe like they should, either; but they did seem to have bathed for court that day. In fact, Scout says that Mr. Ewell had washed off a protective layer of dirt which exposed his skin to the sun and made him appear to have a "scalded look." Scout continues to say the following:

"Mayella looked as if she tried to keep clean, and I was reminded of the row of red geraniums in the Ewell yard" (179).

The red geraniums could represent the fact that Mayella looked as red as her father did, due to sunburn or sensitivity to the sun; and/or that Mayella tried to make her home more beautiful.

Then Scout makes an interesting comparison as she is observing Mayella on the witness stand as follows:

"Apparently Mayella's recital had given her confidence, but it was not her father's brash kind: there was something stealthy about hers, like a steady-eyed cat with a twitchy tail" (181).

This is a good simile to use when describing Mayella. She's young, but she's not altogether dumb. She has a scripted role to play at this trial and she is doing it well. She's playing the "poor me" game like a professional with her eyes set on the goal, and she anxiously sits in her seat to accomplish it.